Paul Ryan Says Obama’s Foreign Policy ‘Blowing Up In Our Faces’

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan took the Romney-Ryan campaign to Ft. Collins, Colo. for a town hall meeting today, where he said President Obama has a made “a string of broken promises” on the economy and foreign policy.

Asked whether Mitt Romney will be more aggressive during the presidential debates with President Obama than John McCain was four years ago, Ryan said there is a difference between 2008 and 2012: Obama’s record.

“This is a president, a man who campaigned with all this glorious rhetoric, all this hope and change, promising all these grand things, and he’s failed to deliver on all these big promises,” said Ryan.

“President Obama cannot run on his record. We will point that out, but you know what he’s gonna try to do? He’s trying to divide this country, put people against each other, distract this country to try and win an election by default, and we’re not gonna let him get away with that,” he said. “Plus, we owe you alternatives. We are not simply asking you to fire Barack Obama because he’s not worth rehiring. We are asking you to fire Barack Obama because we are worth hiring because we have better ideas, because we have solutions that fix the problems in our country, and we’re not gonna duck these tough issues.”

Ryan highlighted Obama’s remark that Washington could not be changed from the inside.

“The economy is barely growing, and President Obama has no idea how to get it growing again. He has no idea,” Ryan said. “If this president can’t change Washington, I say it’s time to change presidents and elect Mitt Romney the next president of the United States.”

When asked why the federal government provides foreign aid to “countries that hate us,” Ryan said, “This is one area where we have to cut spending.”

He then turned to international issues, telling his audience the president’s foreign policy “is blowing up in our faces.”

“Look around the world,” Ryan said. “It looks like Tehran in 1979, but in about a dozen capitals around the world. They are burning our flags at our embassies. They’re climbing our walls at our embassies. They’re taking down our flags and putting up the flags of the Muslim Brotherhood. They just killed four of our diplomats in Benghazi, and Iran is that much closer toward a nuclear weapon.”

Ryan said when the government “is not clear and forceful” on speaking out for American values it projects weakness.

“It sends one message and one message alone: Weakness. We are projecting weakness abroad, and Mitt Romney will not do that,” he said. “We believe in speaking out for our values, we believe in a strong national defense, and we believe in peace through strength, because that keeps us more peaceful. And that means watching how we spend that money, too.”